APPLETON - The communities destroyed by raging wildfires across California may seem a world away to those living in the Fox Valley, but for Gloria Allhiser, they hit home.

Allhiser, who now lives in Menasha, grew up in Paradise, a town of about 26,000 that's been the epicenter of Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California's history. It began Nov. 8 and in the last 11 days has left nearly 80 people dead and nearly 1,000 others unaccounted for.

Allhiser came to Wisconsin in 2000, but her mother, stepfather and brother have continued on as Paradise residents. The family, all safe, are temporarily living with a friend in Chico until they can move into an apartment in December.

"It's really hard to be far away and removed," Allhiser said. "It's not even realistic for me to go fly out and be one more person who needs to be housed.

"It's a very difficult thing to try and learn to accept and even process to wrap my mind around and not being there to see it in person."

Two wildfires have spread across the state, leading the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to declare California a public health emergency.

The Woolsey Fire near Los Angeles has left more than 96,000 acres burned, more than 1,400 structures destroyed and three people dead. Camp Fire has left more than 12,000 structures destroyed, 150,000 acres burned, 77 people dead and nearly 1,000 missing.

President Donald Trump visited Paradise on Saturday with several state and local officials, including California Gov. Jerry Brown and Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom. Trump promised to provide federal assistance to the state in response to the fires.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says Camp Fire won't be fully contained until Nov. 30, with it currently at about 65 percent contained. Woolsey is expected to be contained by Nov. 22.

Allhiser said it's difficult to process the physical loss of many places that served as childhood memories for her.

"The places my mom and I would go ... all of these places that held special memories, I have to grieve because they're gone now," Allhiser said.

"I don't know anybody who has died from the fire; I haven't looked through the entire list of missing people to see if I know any names. I feel fortunate that the people I know are safe," she said. "They're in a position to be OK and to overcome, but the emotional horror and loss is huge."

Allhiser said it's hard to explain to people in the Midwest what the threat of wildfires is like. She lived with it on a daily basis while living in Paradise, she said.

"In Wisconsin or in the Fox Valley, we don't really have a good sense of the nature of a wildfire or what forest fires really do out West," Allhiser said. "It's a daily threat.

"I think it's a hard concept living in the Midwest. I even forgot how dangerous and how quick they were. That's not a reality for us here in Appleton."

Allhiser's father, Brad McIntyre of Kaukauna, who lived in Paradise before his divorce in the mid-1980s, said he can still distinctly visualize every street name in the community referred to in the news.

"We know those neighborhoods. We can imagine people on these roads who died, burned to death in their cars because they couldn't get out."

McIntyre said the scale of destruction is hard to imagine living here.

"That fire is the size of about 30 to 40 percent of Outagamie County," McIntyre said. "It's enormous.

"All the schools are destroyed, the churches are gone ... it's unimaginable, and that fire still has two weeks left."

He said the holiday season is difficult to comprehend for the people in Paradise.

"(It's) Thanksgiving ... people are living in tents," McIntyre said.

Allhiser said with all of the devastation, it's important to look at stories of hope coming out of the destruction, like her brother, who has received national attention for his serendipity in finding his engagement ring for his girlfriend in the midst of his house's ruins.

"It's so bizarre to me that this story has caught on, but I think it's symbolic," she said. "With a disaster and tragedy this huge, we'll take literally any glimmer of hope, any good story.

"All these little stories that are coming out about how people took care of each other coming out of the fire, how people in the community are rallying around, there's so much hope."

Allhiser encourages anyone who wishes to donate to help victims of the fire to visit North Valley Community Foundation's website: www.nvcf.org.